Things You Didn’t Know About Jackie Chan!

Jackie Chan is one of the biggest things to ever come out of Hong Kong. He is the star of Jackie Chan Adventures, and Jackie Chan’s death has been rumored more times than Gordon Lui has fans. A master of Kung Fu, his feats inspire hordes of young uns, and even a few of the old uns. Here a back and forth on a few things you know about Jackie, and a few things you don’t.

Jackie was born on April 7th in hong Kong, in 1954. He was apprenticed (indentured?) to the Peking Opera. And he has 16 names. That’s right, 16 names used in his culture, for films, for whatever. That’s a lot of names for a short fellow!

He is the star of the Rush hour series, a wildly popular America film series with actor Chris Rock. What many people don’t know is that Jackie doesn’t like the series, and for a very simple reason: he doesn’t understand it! He has said that he simply doesn’t get American humor! Imagine that, somebody making people laugh who doesn’t understand why they are laughing!

Many people don’t know it, but Mr. Chan acted with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. Go on, look for the guard with the fu manchu mustache in the jail fight scene. That’s Jackie. What is surprising, however, is that though he enjoys Bruce Lee, he has built his screen persona in opposition to Mr. Lee’s! He doesn’t play strong, silent types, but rather foolish weak types. He doesn’t hold his arms wide, like Bruce Lee, but close in. Bruce is smooth and flowing, Mr. Chan is tight and choppy. And in a variety of other things he chooses to do the opposite.

And, the one sad thing about Mr. Chan, he is a communist. In fact, he sparked a firestorm of protest when he labeled America the most corrupt country in the world. This is actually understandable, as he grew up in China under the Mao regime. However, considering that he has made his money under capitalism, there is a thread of illogic to his viewpoint. Perhaps he would be willing to give all his money to the government and let them direct his Jackie Chan Adventures?